At 0419 on Sunday May 20, the Beverly Fire Department responded for a report of a basement fire at 12 Arlington Ave. The fire was discovered by a Beverly Patrolman investigating an unknown alarm in the area. As he walked around the home, he observed flames through a basement window and opened the front door to find the home was vacant and under renovation.

Upon arrival at the scene, Engine 5 under the command of Firefighter Brian Miller forced their way through a side door leading to the basement and extinguished a fire near the basement stairs using a 13/4 inch hoseline.

The rest of the house was checked for fire and ventilated by the crew of Truck 1. Fire investigators assigned to the Office of the State Fire Marshal are assisting Beverly Fire Investigators and Beverly Police Officers.

Motor Vehicle Crash

5/19/12

At 0121 on Saturday, May 19, the Beverly Fire Department responded for a report of a rollover accident with a vehicle on fire in the area of 510 Hale St. Engine 3 was the first to arrive finding a single vehicle crash. The vehicle was on its side between a telephone pole and a rock wall. The vehicle’s engine compartment was heavily involved in fire and an unresponsive person was pinned under the vehicle.

Unable to remove the victim trapped under the car and seeing he was dangerously close to the fire, Lieutenant Paul Rideout placed himself over him shielding him from the heat and flames until his crew could get a hoseline into position to extinguish the fire. Once the fire was knocked down and additional firefighters from Truck 1 arrived, the crews were able to free the victim from under the car and begin attempts to revive him. Unfortunately, despite efforts by Beverly Police, Fire and Northeast Regional Ambulance the male party succumbed to his injuries.

While protecting the victim from the fire, Lt. Rideout suffered minor burns and smoke inhalation. He was transported to Beverly Hospital where he was treated and released.

Smoke Detectors Do Save Lives

May 15 2012

As a society, we often take for granted the little things that are around us. All too often we forget about the lessons learned from our ancestors and doom ourselves to re-learning by making the same mistakes over and over again. One simple item we take for granted is the smoke detector. More often than not it sits up on our ceiling either being an eye sore or a source of aggravating chirps because the battery is failing. But once in a while, that little $20 item can be the difference between big fires and little fires or life and death.

Such was the case on Tuesday morning. At approximately 530 am, a Beverly couple awoke to the sound of their fire alarms going off. What they found was a smoke condition coming from the room of their child. The comforter on their child’s bed had come into contact with on a nightlight that was plugged in and turned on. Over time, the nightlight heated the comforter and eventually caused the fabric to ignite. The smoke generated was enough to activate the alarms and alert the couple. Fortunately, due to the early detection of the fire, the parents were able to quickly extinguish the fire and prevent their child from being harmed.

Stories like this didn’t happen not too long ago. Before the advent of smoke detectors, accidental fires that occurred during the sleeping hours were often the most dangerous because there was no early warning. In many cases, people were hurt or killed because they went on sleeping completely unaware that a fire was burning until they suffocated from the smoke that filled their homes. Recognizing this problem, the smoke detector was invented. Over the years, the smoke detector has saved many lives but we still find people that don’t take care of them or don’t install them in the first place.

In today’s fast paced world, we are asking you to slow down for a minute today and look around your house. See what matters to you the most. Is it your pictures? Your expensive home theater system? All of your important documents? How about your family? Now take a look at your smoke detectors. Are they there? Are they adequate? When was the last time you changed the batteries? Are they more than ten years old? If you don’t know the answer to these questions you may not have a fire safe home. For the sake of your family, please check your smoke detectors.